


The Only Lie She Told Him

by ARose



Category: What Remains of Edith Finch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 19:43:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11297535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARose/pseuds/ARose
Summary: When Edith Finch wrote her journal to her unborn son, she had omitted one part of her life from him.Something that connected to her death, something that he thought was because of child birth.She had lied to him about one thing, and she hoped that he'd never have to learn the truth.





	The Only Lie She Told Him

> It wasn't something she wrote down, but Edith Finch didn't die in child birth as her diary seemed to elude to– at least, not entirely. She died _after_ giving birth.

When she was younger, Edith had frequently gotten asthma attacks. Each of them were pretty severe, leading to her mother worrying constantly about what her daughter was doing and breathing in.

Her great-grandma, Edie Finch, was the opposite. She encouraged her younger namesake to explore the house, encouraged little Edith Jr. that just because she had asthma it didn't mean she had to be locked away from the adventures she could have.

And maybe that was why they stopped. The more Edith had explored the house, the more she had ran around despite her mothers warnings, the less her asthma appeared.

At the age of 8, it had seemed to have disappeared completely.

It didn't appear again until she was 11 and her and her mother, Dawn, had left the house (and Edie) behind. They had just been stopping for a moment to fill up on gas, and despite her mother telling her not to she had been running around the station just because she could.

She had felt it before it happened. Her chest had squeezed so tightly it felt like she wasn't breathing anymore, and she had fallen to the ground with fast, intense breaths.

Her mother hadn't realised until she went to go get Edith so they could leave.

She could still remember her mothers face when she had found her, huddled up in a ball unable to properly breathe. Dawn had panicked and grabbed her old, warn out phone and called the ambulance before she even thought to do anything else.

When they had gotten to the hospital, taken by the ambulance, leaving their just-then filled car behind, she was rushed to the emergency room. They hadn't been able to help her breathe before they had taken her in and had to hook her up to a lot of machines and oxygen just so she could breathe.

Edith didn't remember much of that day, but she could still remember how her mother had broken down in sobs when she heard that it wasn't asthma: it was AIDS.

At first, the doctors had been suspicious and concerned about how Edith had gotten it, but soon, after a quick test in Dawn, they had realised that it had happened because her mother also had it. It happened during birth, but seeing as her mother had given birth at home and wanted to be "all natural" she hadn't gone to the hospital.

Which, to Edith, was much more concerning than herself because her mother had never complained or said anything about having anything.

It turned out her mother hadn't even known, and the symptoms had been a lot less prominent than most people's.

…

Her mother was the first to go. She died when Edith was 15. They had both known it was coming, the symptoms she hadn't been displaying had finally come at full force. She had starting coughing at nearly all times, was fired near constantly and it didn't take long for her to go.

She had died holding Edith's hand.

…

When she turned 17, she was one of the people in school that went to parties a lot. She hadn't seen the point in being studious as she knew she would die soon, but then _the party_ happened.

She was drunk. He was drunk. He had either forgotten about her telling him earlier that week about how she couldn't have sexual activities with anyone or thought she was someone else.

(She said no, even though she was drunk. She had said it. He hadn't cared.)

And well, it was pretty obvious what came out of that encounter.

At 17, a pregnant teen, she finally picked up the key her mother had left her and went back to the house.

22 weeks pregnant, she had found out the stories of her relatives. It had seemed that her family really wasn't lucky and she was no exception, was something she thought as she heard about the curse through different stories and journals.

When she gave birth, her son, her beautiful, beautiful son, was delivered in an emergency room. The doctors had seen that she had been fine after the operation, and it seemed her son hadn't gained anything from her– they had said this a few hours in.

And then, when she was finally getting to leave after everything, her lungs had compressed and she found herself unable to breathe.

It's obvious what happened to her there, but it was what actually happened.

Her journal had said Dawn had died of cancer. That was false.

Her journal had said that she had died in child birth. That was false.

But her son was clean, and even before she had given birth to him and known for certain he hadn't gotten anything from her, she has been sure to erase anything that said she had had it.

Her son wouldn't know. But he would be alive. He would be safe.

(She hoped so badly he would be safe and not apart of this curse).

Maybe she was a bit like her mother in that.

She kept something from her family, even through she had told him in that journal that she didn't think he deserved that.

But she was dead now.

It didn't matter much, at least to her.

And as she looked down from the sky, at her son placing flowers on her tomb, she hoped that he'd never need to learn it as she had.

She hoped he would be safe.

She hoped he would never learn of the only lie she had told him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> There is no What Remains of Edith Finch fanfics/one-shots yet, so I decided: why not?
> 
> This is basically just pure angst, as you have read, but I hoped you liked it!
> 
> I also hope that there will be more WROEF stories in the further. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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